The Breaking Point (1959)

In Ganymede, A tourist is transfixed by a fifteen-year-old boy who is small for his age. He befriends the boy, daydreams of whisking him back to London from Venice, but the boy dies an untimely death in a boating acident. Also publ. in The Blue Lenses and Other Stories. ( )

Quite an uneven collection of stories. The very best are those that concern children and their development, notably ''The pool'', in which the ''other world'' shuts its gates forever, due to the first menstruation of the protagonist girl. And also ''The lordly ones'', where a mute boy escapes from his cruel parents by joining a flock of roaming animals (or whatever they are, faeries?) on the moors, the lordly ones, only to be abandoned by them shortly after. These two stories border on the edge of what today is called ''fantasy'', but are written in a sober style to great effect. Of the stories about grown-ups ''The alibi'' stands out, even though the idea of a perfectly normal citizen freaking out in secret while no one notices is not very original. The execution of this particular story is excellent. On the minus side, there is ''Ganymede'', completely filled with commonplace and ''The menace'', whose protagonist is an unlikely caricature without the writer knowing so. All in all, certainly worthwhile for the 3-4 excellent stories this contains. ( )